Grant at 18 months

Little buddy is almost 18 months old, so I wanted to give you an update on what he's been doing lately.

First, he's running all over the place.  He still looks a little like Frankenstein, but he's super cute.  Sometimes he walks with both hands behind his back with his buddah belly sticking out, and his head cocked to one side and he is just SO cute.  Gosh, I just want to eat him up sometimes.

Second, his vocabulary is really coming along.  He likes to make the sound of whatever you are talking about.  So if we're talking about cars, he repeatedly says, "Vroom vroom!"  (or "Voom voom" as he says it).  If he hears the neighbors dog barking, he says, "Woof woof!"  He wears dinosaur jammies to bed, and when he sees them, he says, "Rooooooaarr!"  ("What sound does the dinosaur make Grant?") He'll repeat what you say a lot too.  Even if he doesn't get the words right, he'll say something in the same pitch and tone that you did, which makes it sound like he's repeating you.  The other day we were singing "The Right Stuff" by New Kids on the Block (that's Grant's theme song) and we did the "Oh oh oh oh oh" parts and he finished it off with, "The Right Stuff!"  plain as day!  He also says, "Social" when drinking his milk.  This one cracks me up... and I can picture him some day saying that at his fraternity house with a Beast Light in his hand.  Yikes. 

Third, he is just ALL BOY.  I mean, your stereotypical little boy.  It cracks me up.  In no way did we push him toward this, he just LOVES cars, trucks, wheels, eating, running around, getting into things... you know, typical boy stuff.  Although he's also very into pushing his sister's pink stroller, so that is pretty funny too.  But he definitely likes to get into trouble.  His latest thing is pulling the dish towels down off of the bar on the oven.  I'll get upset with him and he'll look up at me and laugh.  SUCH a troublemaker!  He loves to throw little pieces of food off of his tray when he's eating, and does the same thing.  Scrunches up his nose and laughs.  NOT COOL little buddy.

He's recently started sleeping through the night during the week and sometimes on the weekends.  But he's always been a pretty decent sleeper.  Even if he wakes around 6 am, Todd gives him a small cup of milk and changes his diaper (usually he finishes this cup of milk before the changing is done!) and puts him back in his crib and he goes back to sleep!  I admit we have been pretty blessed with two kids who sleep pretty great. 

I can't believe he's almost 18 months old.  We love you Grant!

Challenges of Parenthood Part II

When you become a parent, your alone time becomes quite precious.  So every evening, after the kids are in bed, I love having dinner with Todd and getting some things done around the house, blogging, updating pictures of the kids, or just watching the Red Sox on TV.  Just about every night, I have about a million things to do, and never enough hours to do it. 

Monday night, I was unable to do any of these things.

Every night, Natalie likes to turn off her own light.  It's a part of our routine, and she's just now tall enough to reach it.  So Monday night, she turns off the light like she normally does and takes the 2-3 steps toward her bed... and while doing so, trips over her own feet or the carpet, or who knows what and does a face plant into the side of her bed.  It sounded like it hurt, but it was pitch black in her room and my eyes hadn't "adjusted" yet. 

So when we see this, we immediately think... oh she broke off the top half of her tooth!  Because you can (kind of) see that the two on either side are higher than the lower left front tooth.   So we searched everywhere and couldn't find it.  We assumed she swallowed it. 

She also got this nasty bruise on her chin.  Poor kid.  So off she goes with Daddy to the dentist on Tuesday for the first time (I know, I know... I shouldn't keep putting this off but it's hard to find a pediatric dentist that takes my insurance!)  She was very brave at the dentist.  She only cried once when they sprayed water in her mouth.  She had no problems with the x rays.  The x rays revealed that she actually DIDN'T knock out the top half of her tooth!  Instead, like a nail (the tooth) and a hammer (the bed), the tooth was pushed down into the gums.  OUCH!  Thankfully they didn't see any damage to the root, so for now the tooth will stay where it is. We go back in 2 weeks, and they said she will have to eat soft foods between now and then and try to mainly eat with her back teeth since she has a bruised gum area in the front there.  We go back again in another 2 months, and hopefully we'll get the all clear.  Eventually her adult tooth will push the baby tooth out in a few years.  She was very proud that she got to go to the dentist!

So you see my friends, I was just mentally worn out after her accident Monday evening.  I didn't even eat dinner and went to bed not too long after she did.  Parenthood will wear you out on all levels!

Perfect example of the challenges of parenthood

Oh the things you do for your kids...

Today I spent the better part of an afternoon driving around Natick hunting down Natalie's beloved Pink Bear.  Anytime she gets upset, she goes, "I want Pink Bear!"  Pink Bear is to Natalie what Croco is to me. 

So I remember her having Pink Bear at CrossFit this morning - there are only two classes so Todd had to bring the kids and we had to do the "switch" this morning.  She had him with her there.  I think I remember her having him in the car on the way to 7-11.  I thought she had him when we went in, but then I didn't remember her taking him out of 7-11.  So when I couldn't find him before her nap, my heart sunk.  I felt sure he was back at 7-11.  So I took off for 7-11.  They didn't have it.  I went to CFNE, and couldn't find it in the parking lot.  I went back to 7-11.  I searched the entire house.  I had just cleaned upstairs, so I knew it wasn't up there.  Or wait... was it?  The last place I checked.... the cabinet door part of her armoire.  She had been in there earlier in the day, and he was on the bottom shelf.  Whew.  Crisis averted.

Then, after nap time, Grant woke up cranky.  We gave him milk and a snack and he kept putting his head on the floor, which is a sure sign he doesn't feel well.  I looked at his ears, and his right ear had a ton of pus coming out of it.  Ew.  Time to head off to the ER.  Thankfully it only took an hour, but it was a long hour, as he screamed and cried the entire time.  They said he actually can't burst his eardrums because technically having tubes in your ears means you already have burst eardrums.  But if wax clogs up one or both of the tubes, then you might get an ear infection behind the drum.  Which I'm pretty sure he has.  The one ear and tube that had the pus was doing it's job... draining.  But he wasn't complaining about that one.  Only the left one.  So after a heavy dose of Motrin, and two 'scripts for antibiotics (oral and ear drops) we went home, and he was a much happier camper. 

But mommy was exhausted.